Narrated by Lauren Fortgang
The Publisher’s Blurb: When Keri Daniels’s boss finds out she has previous carnal knowledge of reclusive bestselling author Joe Kowalski, she gives Keri a choice: get an interview or get a new job.
Joe’s never forgotten the first girl to break his heart, so he’s intrigued to hear Keri’s back in town—and looking for him. He proposes an outrageous plan—for every day she survives with his family on their annual camping trip, Keri can ask one question.
The chemistry between Joe and Keri is as potent as the bug spray, but Joe’s sister is out to avenge his broken heart, and Keri hasn’t ridden an ATV since she was ten. Who knew a little blackmail, a whole lot of family and some sizzling romantic interludes could make Keri reconsider the old dream of Keri & Joe 2gether 4ever?
My take on the story: This is the first in a series – the Kowalskis – with a bunch of good looking fellows, brothers and it seems, later in the series, cousins – all of whom need their happily-ever-afters.
The books are Harlequin/Carina Press offerings. I can’t really tell for sure from book 1, but I’m guessing this is going to be a series based on the small-town life of the Kowalskis whose business is Joe, the bestselling author, but in the next few books there will be the local family-run B&B. I guess what I’m saying is, it’s pretty standard fare – a family (extended) full of great guys and a small town surrounding them.
In Exclusively Yours, the author examines the “high school sweethearts find love again some 20 years later” trope. I liked that Keri left her small town life and small town boyfriend because she wanted to be HER – not someone’s girl, someone’s mother, someone’s daughter. It wasn’t the crush of a small town life, so much as a desire to be something on her own. This was a legitimate reason to me, even more legit than the usual “went to Hollywood to make it in the movie biz” that often accompanies this trope.
Joe took her post-graduation rejection pretty hard – in fact, he turned to alcohol and dang near ruined his career and his life. But now that he has what she wants – the exclusive story of his reclusive life – he’s going to try to win her back. Or is it “make her pay”? It’s both light fare and a little darkness, like the best of good Harlequin.
I will probably listen to the next one in the series before deciding whether I want to keep up with the Kowalskis – it’s a fun rom-com kinda break, but not so intriguing or engrossing (yet) that I can’t move on.
My take on the narration: Lauren Fortgang is one of those B-list narrators with a lot of experience and a lot of it in Harlequin narration. When I say a lot, I mean she has 276 listings at Audible (ok, 200 of them are horoscopes under 1 hour, so let’s just say 76 listings of books). She has a young sound, with an expressive tone and she is able to differentiate characters. Her tone of voice always indicates what is going on – she has wry and sarcastic and emotional and sincere down pat. She does a wide range of ages (3 generations in this book alone.) It’s a middle-of-the-road narration – good but not inspiring. Her male voices are not pitched very low; in fact, one of the brothers is the hero of the next book and he sounded awfully young in this book. That’s always an issue for romance listeners, so if you’re looking for basso profundo manly men, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
If the storyline interests you, this book is a free eBook at Amazon right now. Also, since it’s a series, you can probably snag it discounted at Audible when they do that First in a Series sale they do every now and then. Am I implying it’s not worth a credit? Not really, just thinking if you were on the fence, there are some options…
Melinda
Narration: B-/C+
Book Content: B-/C+
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: none
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Carina Press
As Melinda mentions the Kindle version of Exclusively Yours is free at Amazon right now – if you “purchase” the free ebook you’re offered the Audible download for $3.49. :)
Now that’s a good deal! Thanks, Brenda!
Here is part of my review:
“Overall I felt like I was listening to someone narrate a romantic comedy movie. All the elements were there: an overbearing boss, a heroine who is shallow at first, a city girl stuck in the woods dealing with bugs and no hair dryer, vindictive person out to make life miserable for said city girl (parent trap, anyone?), big sometimes dysfunctional family, unruly children, lack of honest communication, a few slap-stick humor moments, and the HEA. It was about that predictable and about that deep emotionally.”
I loved Joe but I thought Keri was selfish, and I thought Terri was a vindictive witch. The social interactions were stuck somewhere in middle school. On the other hand, I liked the writing style and there was some great dialogue and humor at times. I skipped the second book and have listened to the third book. I thought that one was a cute, typical contemporary romance. Well done but not unique. At least Exclusively Yours has been very memorable! ;-)
Oh, I should have said my ratings would match yours. I thought the narrator was a B, though. I enjoyed her ability to get the dialogue right.
I can’t believe that I just hit a review I don’t totally agree with!
I totally loved the story, and I think it’s because of the narration. I got totally sucked into the heroine’s desperation from the beginning but as the story went along, I realized that I might not have enjoyed it as much if I were reading it in print. Usually the amount of characters in a large nosy-family setting would’ve turned me off (I sometimes find it distracting to the plot) but because of the narrator’s tempo and subtle hints at sarcasm, I actually found it all very entertaining. Just like the previous post, it too reminded me of a romantic comedy. I could almost envision the whole thing like a romcom playing out in my head!
The kids’ voices were amazing and the scenes with the children were hysterical because the narrator’s delivery really portrayed the different boys at their different ages. I don’t know if I’m explaining this right, but the narrator really captured that subtle rhythms in children’s voices that change as they get older (did that make sense?). It was so impressive! As far as the men’s voices go, I don’t need the narrator to provide a deep bass, which now that I think about it, would be sort of a weird feature from a female narrator. I personally just need to have each character clearly represented in the audio (since, it’s not like actually reading, where we see the quotation marks) and the emotions and delivery fit the tone of the characters’ dialogue; I think it is rather a lot to expect a narrator to provide a full array of carefully defined voices for each character. (I mean, if I was expecting that, I guess I should look for audiobooks with multiple narrators) Likewise, I don’t need male narrators to provide believably feminine voices. In fact, I think when female narrators “try too hard” to portray a “man’s voice”, it becomes distracting: I know this comment will be met with a lot of disagreement, but this is why I am *not* a fan of Roslyn Landor; I find some of her voices slightly unexpected and it interferes with my listening experience.
In defense of the narrator, I wonder if she knew there would be a follow-up book featuring one of the brothers, and if she would’ve narrated his voice accordingly (less of “awfully young” per the reviewer). Listened to this first book several more times actually, and ended up binge-listening through as much of the series as was available, then came to a screeching halt when I got to the one book with a different narrator. By then, I think the series was already marked with the original narrator’s stamp. Like Amanda Ronconi/Molly Harper, I think Shannon Stacey/Laura Fortgang have become a good fit. I returned to the series when the original narrator returned for the rest of the books.
About to listen to the latest release from this author/narrator combo. Hope to see a review for that on here in the near future!